Xenomech:dk47: In case it hasn't already been posted: USB icon is on the side that goes up.

Now, if only all USB plugs followed that standard.

And if only all USB ports were not 90° perpendicular to the "up-down" axis.

And if only all USB drives had that icon at all.

:-\

Yes that's the downfall(s), in addition to painted on icons you can't feel in the dark.

Not to mention how shiatty Windows is with plugging in USB devices and having to search, install drivers. I realize there are a bunch of practicalities with why this happens but... my god what a pain in the ass. It seems like it took 5-10 years just for Windows to get good enough with USB for it to work 80% of the time.

/also love the "let windows search for a solution to this problem" button. Has that ever worked??

ElBarto79:I always wondered why they didn't design USB so you could plug it in either way and it would just work. The only thing I can figure is that no one considered we would be using things like flash drives and cellphone chargers that are constantly being plugged in and unplugged.

Because USB and every variation of it was designed by a fark'n committee. One of the best things about the latest Apple products is the lightening connector which doesn't give a fark which way you plug it in.

Tommy Moo:I'm not an evolutionary biologist, but could this work? It seems to me that all you're doing is introducing a very poor competitor into a gene pool. The HIV that is replication-inhibited would fail to replicate, while the normal HIV would continue to run amok. This is like trying to drive human beings extinct by introducing a few hundred million sterile people into the world. Except even worse, because viruses reproduce asexually.

I'm having trouble finding anything clear (their own website doesn't link to the paper) but it seems this article is misleading: No modified HIV, Harrich's team has a 100% effective GENE THERAPY in human immune cells in a glass dish. Animal studies begin soon, if this pans out it'll have to be the first mass-market gene therapy.

gingerjet:ElBarto79: I always wondered why they didn't design USB so you could plug it in either way and it would just work. The only thing I can figure is that no one considered we would be using things like flash drives and cellphone chargers that are constantly being plugged in and unplugged.

Because USB and every variation of it was designed by a fark'n committee. One of the best things about the latest Apple products is the lightening connector which doesn't give a fark which way you plug it in.

DenisVengeance:ElBarto79: I always wondered why they didn't design USB so you could plug it in either way and it would just work. The only thing I can figure is that no one considered we would be using things like flash drives and cellphone chargers that are constantly being plugged in and unplugged.

Because certain pins were for current and others were for data. If you made it reversible then both the device and the host would have to have some intermediate logic added (read: cost) to determine what each pin is for based on how it's plugged in.

Not necessarily, it could be designed such that power pins always contacted power connections and data pins always contacted data connections. Yes there would need to be a little bit of logic built in since there would be two possible positions but this wouldn't seem to be particularly expensive or prohibitive seeing as it already has logic built in to control the power supply and to store driver data. (The reason you don't need to download drivers for USB devices is because the drivers are stored in the device and installed on the host when you plug it in)

While Id love to see aids cured as much as the next person its about the most preventable disease on the planet, I mean don't share needles, and don't bareback partners that you aren't in a monogomous relationship with and you pretty much wont get it.

Oldiron_79:While Id love to see aids cured as much as the next person its about the most preventable disease on the planet, I mean don't share needles, and don't bareback partners that you aren't in a monogomous relationship with and you pretty much wont get it.

busy chillin':Oldiron_79: While Id love to see aids cured as much as the next person its about the most preventable disease on the planet, I mean don't share needles, and don't bareback partners that you aren't in a monogomous relationship with and you pretty much wont get it.

Shazam999:gingerjet: ElBarto79: I always wondered why they didn't design USB so you could plug it in either way and it would just work. The only thing I can figure is that no one considered we would be using things like flash drives and cellphone chargers that are constantly being plugged in and unplugged.

Because USB and every variation of it was designed by a fark'n committee. One of the best things about the latest Apple products is the lightening connector which doesn't give a fark which way you plug it in.

/cue the apple hate

Yeah, it's always fair to compare connectors from different decades.

That's really not a valid defense IMHO. Computers had a myriad of connectors long before USB. VGA, parallel, serial, PS/2 keyboard, mouse, etc. USB is arguably worse than many/most of those for ease of pluginess.

It's a small thing, really, but I think most people find it mildly annoying.

ya, I think Subby was more trying to make a point that despite there being no cure for AIDS yet. Time and resources are being spent/wasted(in his opinion) on other research not related to AIDS.Sorry Subby, just because one disease still exists doesn't mean all others have to be put on the back burner. Life doesn't work that way.

Jument:Shazam999: gingerjet: ElBarto79: I always wondered why they didn't design USB so you could plug it in either way and it would just work. The only thing I can figure is that no one considered we would be using things like flash drives and cellphone chargers that are constantly being plugged in and unplugged.

Because USB and every variation of it was designed by a fark'n committee. One of the best things about the latest Apple products is the lightening connector which doesn't give a fark which way you plug it in.

/cue the apple hate

Yeah, it's always fair to compare connectors from different decades.

That's really not a valid defense IMHO. Computers had a myriad of connectors long before USB. VGA, parallel, serial, PS/2 keyboard, mouse, etc. USB is arguably worse than many/most of those for ease of pluginess.

It's a small thing, really, but I think most people find it mildly annoying.

dk47:/also love the "let windows search for a solution to this problem" button. Has that ever worked??

amazingly enough--- yes. recently, I was installing 7 on an older machine for a friend. Seems there was some odd feature on the motherboard that 7 did not support and it gave me the old "let windows search for a solution". I'll be damned - it took a few minutes but it DID find a solution and pointed me to a link that supplied me with a compatible driver for the device and got it working under 7.

starsrift:Don't you know how to read, subby? The link has some gobbledygook about AIDS, not USB drives.

Talk about misleading headlines... *muttergrumble*

Maybe Subby couldn't decipher the horrifying grammar.

/But oooh, this method of curing disease I was actually playing with in my book...//I swear to god, the shiat that comes out a few months after I write it in my book, I should start talking about feasible ends to world hunger or something. :p

dk47:Xenomech: dk47: In case it hasn't already been posted: USB icon is on the side that goes up.

Now, if only all USB plugs followed that standard.

And if only all USB ports were not 90° perpendicular to the "up-down" axis.

And if only all USB drives had that icon at all.

:-\

Yes that's the downfall(s), in addition to painted on icons you can't feel in the dark.

Not to mention how shiatty Windows is with plugging in USB devices and having to search, install drivers. I realize there are a bunch of practicalities with why this happens but... my god what a pain in the ass. It seems like it took 5-10 years just for Windows to get good enough with USB for it to work 80% of the time.

/also love the "let windows search for a solution to this problem" button. Has that ever worked??

I got that dialog on a Windows Vista machine once. I tried clicking yes. It start whirring and grinding; I left to get a hot drink.

Came back an hour later and it had downloaded an Ubuntu Live iso image, ready to burn to CD. So I guess it's useful after all!